Clueless
by mew-tsubaki
Summary: Drabble; set after s16ep11. Torres confesses part of the truth to Bishop. She has to get it, right? Bishop's a smart woman, after all. [pre-Ellick]


**Clueless**

An NCIS drabble

by mew-tsubaki

Note: The _NCIS_ characters belong to Donald P. Bellasario, not to me. After what Nick did in s16ep11, "Toil and Trouble," I really had to write this, *lol*. Read, review, and enjoy!

\- ^-^3

Torres thought he'd won the lottery. The case was closed, it was a new day, and actually it was now nighttime and Bishop _still_ had yet to throttle him for oh-so-helpfully cancelling her date with Boyd.

"Hey, McGee, is it a blue moon or something?" he asked while they were alone in the bullpen.

McGee gave him an odd look, confused as he turned off his desk light for the evening. "A blue moon…? What? No, Torres, nothing like that."

"But Bishop's been so…_nice_."

Now McGee sighed and pursed his lips. "She's always nice. It doesn't hurt that we caught a government department head in the wrong the other day, though." He paused. "Oh. This is about what you did when she made the mistake of putting her phone in your hands for a minute, isn't it?"

Torres mock-chuckled. "Ha, ha, very funny, Tim." He got up from his desk, too fidgety to stay sitting any longer, and walked over to the other agent. "But—I mean, am I losing it? Or should I be even more scared that she's going to get back at me when I least expect it?"

"Shockingly, I don't think that's the case this time." McGee clapped him on the shoulder as Bishop rounded the corner from the ladies' room. "You'll be fine, Torres. Have a good night, guys," he finished, addressing them both before heading for the elevator.

Bishop smiled and cocked her head. "Why's McGee assuring you that you'll be fine?" she asked as she grabbed her things and checked to make sure she had what she needed.

Torres focused on the way her fingers fussed with the latches on her bag, drumming up some courage to say his next words: "Ellie…"

She paused and looked him in the eye. "Nick."

"I wanted to apologize again, for cancelling your date." He frowned for good measure.

Bishop softened. "I'll admit, I was pissed. I'm still a bit annoyed, but Boyd and I are moving past it. To tell the truth, we're backing off set-in-stone dinner dates for now. We're going for easier coffee dates on the fly, something that might actually happen around NCIS cases," she added, though she didn't sound very convinced.

Somehow Torres pushed the words "Good for you guys" out of his mouth. But he waited another half beat before he prodded the topic further. "Regarding, uh, the rest of it…"

This time she stared at him with that sharp look of hers. At least she was showing some mercy by not bringing up her valid argument regarding their trust issues.

"You asked me why I did it."

Bishop waited, although her eyes widened slightly.

"The truth is…I'm jealous," he confessed.

There. He'd said it. It was out in the open, and Bishop would know, and—

Well, this would be the end of Nick Torres.

But Bishop broke into that distracting grin. "That's all?"

He blinked. He was sweating bullets, and she—she— "Wait. What?"

She heaved a sigh of relief and donned her bag. She even took a step closer to him, her smile smaller but kinder. "I get it. I do."

"You do?" Torres couldn't help but raise a skeptical eyebrow.

"Yeah." She gestured to McGee's desk. "Gibbs isn't an example to help prove my point, but look at McGee. Look at Palmer. Heck, even the director's dating again. And now that I'm 'joining the club,' too, you're…feeling restless. It's fine to want to find somebody, Nick."

A part of him wanted to stumble backwards into his chair. "You…think I'm lonely?"

"It's okay to feel that way," she assured him. "I remember back when I got engaged to my ex-husband. I probably did because most of my friends were getting married and starting families. Sometimes what everyone else is doing just…" Bishop shrugged. "It feels like the thing to do."

"So I just want to date somebody? Anybody at all?"

Bishop patted his arm and gave it a slight squeeze. "Sounds like it. But just because everyone else is taken doesn't mean you have to be, too. There's a woman for you out there somewhere, Nick. Don't settle. You'll find her."

He wanted to scream and laugh at the same time, but he kept it together long enough to enjoy another one of her smiles before she wished him goodnight and left. Then it was him and his thoughts alone:

Eleanor Bishop… A remarkably brilliant woman—who was too dense to realize that Torres was certain he'd found that woman…and that she'd just misread what he'd meant to be a love confession.

\- ^-^ 3

**Torres, m'boy, if that was a confession, then you've got some learning to do. *LOL* Tbh, watching that ep again recently hurt so baaaad, bc I like it best when they get along. ;w; But Ellick (as I've discover the ship is actually called—thx, fandom! XD) still has a long ways to go… And thank gods for rereading, bc coming back to edit this made me like the fic more. Ah, well. I think I was just more excited to write my next one, "Trust Fall," which is forthcoming. Please look forward to it! :D**

**Thanks for reading, and please review! Check out my other **_**NCIS**_** fics if you liked this.**

**-mew-tsubaki :')**


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